It’s the thrill of the hunt that keeps them coming back.

It’s the gamble of hoping to grab a catfish before it grabs them, yet never being quite sure just what might be hiding in that murky Mississippi lakebottom hole.

They’re called grabblers, noodlers, ticklers, doggers and stumpers. But around here, they’re handgrabbers and, to them, fishing with their hands is much more exciting than fishing with a pole.

“Once you do it, it’s addicting,” said handgrabbing veteran Trey Field, 23. “I heard rumors once that people were sticking coon traps in the bottoms of them. That’s why you run your own barrels.”

Field went handgrabbing for the first time in Eagle Lake at age 13. He had heard of it before and finally one day got up enough courage to try it for himself.

“He was about a 15-pounder. He latched on to me when I tried to pull him out, so I didn’t have a good enough hold of him to get him. But that’s what makes you want to do it again,” he said.

During the spring, female catfish go to shallow water to lay their eggs in secluded spots such as holes in the riverbank or hollow logs. Both the females and the males rarely leave the nest until the eggs hatch – which gives handgrabbers a couple of good months to play.

Most grabbers set out their own barrels – makeshift holes the fish can call home – near piers or docks. Field said he usually uses old cast iron bathtubs with a hole drilled in the bottom.

“I know a few people that run stumps or holes in the bank, but I wouldn’t do that. I’ve never heard of really anything more than a little snapping turtle being in there, but I’d rather know exactly what I’m sticking my hand into,” he said.

Ryan Grey has been handgrabbing for about six years, and he prefers to set out 55-gallon drums or water heaters cut in half. He lines both with a water hose to keep from cutting his arms on the rusty steel.

“I have a few of them out in 8- or 9-foot-deep water, but you keep them in shallow water because it’s easier. You set them by piers so you can remember where they are,” he said.

Grey, 21, counts out the bottom support beams of the pier and lines it up with a tree or other landmark to figure out where his barrels are.

He said once the barrels are set, they’re usually in place for years and years.

“I’d have no idea how many are out there at Eagle Lake. Probably thousands. A lot of people hide them and won’t tell you where they are,” he said.

Some grabbers keep the catfish; others throw them back in the water to swim back to their nests.

“I’ve caught about a 30-pounder before. I don’t keep them, though. I just do it for fun,” he said.

The handgrabbing season opened May 1 and ended Friday, and Henry Irwin can’t wait until it opens again next year.

“It gets old after awhile. It’s like deer season. After a month or so you start looking forward to whatever season comes next,” he said.

Irwin said he grabbed about 500 catfish this season at Eagle Lake.

“We usually keep most of them at the beginning of the season to freeze. Then we start giving them away,” he said.

Irwin, 23, has been handgrabbing for five years and said there’s nothing quite like being out on an open lake and fishing with your hands.

“It’s fun. It’s a lot more fun than using a pole,” he said.

Irwin said the biggest fish he’s caught was 18 pounds.

“We’ve thrown some big ones back. We go out there every weekend trying to catch bigger ones than we’ve caught before and more and more each time,” he said.

Irwin said he has 400 to 500 barrels in the lake. He said he doesn’t put anything along the rough edges, so he gets cut up pretty good most of the time. But handgrabbing alone is rough on the arms and hands.

“It’s pretty tough. You look like you’ve been in a fight because they’ll bite you and fin you. But it doesn’t stop you from going back again,” he said.

Irwin said the trick to handgrabbing to just leave your fear on the boat.

“It’s exciting. You just have to reach down in there and see if there’s a fish. If there is, you grab it and try to hold on to it,” he said.

But handgrabbing is not just a boys-only sport.

Thirteen-year-old Jessica Lynch caught a “pretty big fish” two summers ago at Eagle Lake.

“I was with people that do it a lot. Somebody gave me their tennis shoes and said, ‘All you’ve got to do is put your feet on the hole and reach down and grab one,'” she said.

Jessica said after what seemed like forever because she was so scared, she finally grabbed one.

“I don’t remember how big it was, but it was pretty big. My hands were pretty cut up, and the fish bit my pinky, but it was fun. We put it in a net,” she said.

She hasn’t been again, but Jessica said she definitely would if she had the chance.

Sgt. James Copeland, a conservation officer with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, said

A new law went into effect June 18 that all barrels must be made of wood for safety reasons, unless the barrels are already in place in the lakebed.

“Other types are fine if they’re older and have been there for a while, but new ones now have to be wooden,” he said.

Handgrabbers must have a sportfishing license, and it’s illegal to permanently alter nature with barrel devices or to raise a device out of the water to help grab the fish.

But if you ask most handgrabbers, those are things they wouldn’t do anyway because that’s not the name of the game.

“It’s a challenge, but that’s why it’s so much fun. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth it,” Field said.